Toh 589, Toh 945 — The Dhāraṇī-Mantra to Have the Entire Noble “Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā” Read
The Dhāraṇī-Mantra to Have the Entire Noble “Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā” Read
F.204.bF.282.b Homage to the noble Descent into Laṅkā.
“Mahāmati, I shall speak these mantra-words:
tadyathā—padme padmadeve[1] hine hine hine culu culu culu hule hule hule yule yule yule pale pale pale muñce chinde[2] bhinde bhañje[3] marde pramarde[4] dinakare svāhā![5]
“Mahāmati! If any son of good family or daughter of good family upholds[6] these mantra-words, retains them,F.283.a recites them, and masters them, then no one will be able to find a weak point in them, be that a god or a goddess, a nāga or a nāgī, a yakṣa or a yakṣī, an asura or an asurī, a garuḍa or a garuḍī, a kinnara or a kinnarī, a mahoraga or a mahoragī, a gandharva or a gandharvī, a bhūta or a bhūtī, a kumbhāṇḍa or a kumbhāṇḍī, a piśāca or a piśācī, an ostārako or an ostārakī, an apasmāra or an apasmārī, a rākṣasa or a rākṣasī, a ḍāka or a ḍākī, an ojohāra or an ojohārī, a kaṭapūtana or a kaṭapūtanī, or a human man or a woman.
[7] One who recites these mantra-words will have recited the entire Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā. The Blessed One taught these mantra-words so that rākṣasas and others[8] will be kept at bay.”
Here ends “The Dhāraṇī-Mantra to Have the Entire Noble ‘Sūtra of Descent into Laṅkā’ Read.”Notes
The Tibetan reads padme devai.
backThe Tibetan reads muṃcche danade.
backThe Tibetan reads bhanajva.
backThe Tibetan reads mande pramade.
backA highly tentative translation might run as follows: “It is thus— O Lotus, O Lotus Goddess, hine hine hine culu culu culu hule hule hule yule yule yule pale pale pale O One Who Releases, O One Who Chops, O One Who Splits, O One Who Breaks, O One Who Crushes, O One Who Smashes, O Sun svāhā.” Whether padmadeve is a vocative of a female noun is highly questionable. From “O One Who Chops” up to “O One Who Smashes,” the words might equally be quasi-imperatives. “Sun” is expressed with the common epithet “Day Maker.”
backInstead of what we translate here as “to uphold” in order to capture the ambiguity of the original, Tatakaragupta, when discussing a similar dhāraṇī said to encapsulate The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (see The Dhāraṇī of “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines,” Toh 576/932),Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitādhāraṇī (Toh 576/932). is more explicit when he replaces the verb with kaṇṭhasthīkṛ (“to place it in one’s throat”), which is the Sanskrit idiom for “to learn by heart.” He also spells out the benefit as the “meritorious karmic fruit” (puṇyaphala) of memorizing the parent text. This sentence is then followed by a fascinating short discussion, which merits to be quoted in full: “Surely, this is an exaggeration! No, one should not say this. For countless thus-gone ones have empowered this dhāraṇī to serve as a method for gaining the equipment of merit for women, immature people, and simpletons, as well as for learned people whose minds are confused, just like the pole of a snake-charmer[, which is preprepared by the expert snake charmer to be effective even when he is no longer present,] for removing poison; however, it is not a method for gaining the knowledge conveyed by The [Perfection of Wisdom in] One Hundred Thousand Lines. This should be understood to apply in other cases [i.e., where the text is abbreviated into a dhāraṇī] as well” (nanv atyuktir eveti. na caitad vaktavyam. yataḥ strībālamūrkhān paryākulitamatīn paṇḍitān praty api puṇyasaṃbhārasādhanatvenāsaṃkhyeyatathāgatair adhiṣṭhiteyaṃ dhāriṇī, yathā viṣaharatvena gāruḍikaṃ stambhaḥ; na tu lakṣāpratipāditajñānasādhanatvena. evam anyatrāpi boddhavyaḥ). In his note to this dhāraṇī, he reiterates the point about “to uphold” meaning “to memorize” and promises as the reward the fruit of reciting the text (pāṭhaphala).
backThe Tibetan has “human or nonhuman,” but all Sanskrit sources indicate that this is a scribal error.
backThe word for “and others” is not transmitted in the Sanskrit, but it has an apposite meaning.
back
